Information
Goodreads: Fanny Seward: A Life
Series: None
Age Category: Adult
Source: Library
Published: 2014
Summary
Born in 1844 to William Seward, later Secretary of State under President Lincoln, Fanny Seward grew up during a turbulent time in American history. She also kept a diary with her observations on the events and people of the day. Trudy Krisher provides a short biography on her remarkable life.
Review
On the night of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps less well-known is the attempted assassination, on the same night, of Secretary of State William Seward, by Booth's co-conspirator Lewis Powell. Seward's daughter Fanny, 20 years old, was present at her father's bedside when Powell attacked. Her courage in the moment fascinated me, as did the revelation that Fanny was an avid diarist who recorded her observations of many of the nation's leading figures. Sadly, however, it seems that Fanny's diary was never published in full. But, determined to learn more about her, I picked up this lively biography by Trudy Krisher.
Unfortunately, it seems that Krisher's original, lengthier biography could not find a publisher, so readers are left with this tantalizing glimpse of a young woman growing up in a time of war. Personally, I wished that Krisher had included even more entries from Fanny's diaries. As it is, it seems that sometimes Krisher is more concerned about noting what was happening around Fanny politically and culturally, and musing on what it meant for people of Fanny's age to come of age in such a turbulent time. Often these methods are used when biographical material is scarce; historians build up a picture of the age to suggest what the subject might have been experiencing. But surely Fanny's diary would give us some more insight into what was happening to her, specifically.
And her life is very interesting. Fanny grew up in a privileged, though progressive family where her mother knew Harriet Tubman and her father worked in President Lincoln's cabinet. It is believed that the Seward home in Auburn may have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. Fanny herself had dreams of becoming a published writer and it seems her family generally supported her. Unfortunately, she died in 1866 at the age of 21.
From Fanny's writings come fascinating glimpses of her interior life, though Krisher explains that diaries at the time were not considered private affairs and could be read to others. Thus, Fanny never writes anything negative about a family member or about the famous figures who visited her family and with whom she socialized. But the glimpses are there. She greatly admired the actress Charlotte Cushman. She visited army camps and worked in hospitals. She may have fallen in love with a soldier. I longed to know even more about her. A volume of her diary and letters is long overdue!
Of course, Krisher knows that readers really want to know about the April 14 attack. The book begins with it, before circling back to Fanny's early life, making it a sort of cliffhanger. It was a day on which Fanny idly wondered if anything of note would happen for her to record. It ended up changing her life, with some historians seeming to feel that the attack was the final straw for her mother's poor health. And Fanny herself would not live much longer, either.
Fanny Seward has been too long overlooked. She was a woman who mingled with the elite of the day, who made an effort to observe the people around her in order to improve her writing, and who experienced one of the most formative events of American history. Yet only glimpses of her are caught in the accounts of the lives of the great men of the day. I enjoyed this biography immensely, but hope it inspires more research on Fanny and her life and writings.
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